Editing Luftwaffe (section)

==War crimes==
===Forced labour===
{{see also |Jägerstab|Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps|Companies involved in the Holocaust}} 
[[File:Concentration camp prisoners at Messerschmitt factory.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Concentration camp prisoners forced to work at a [[Messerschmitt]] aircraft factory]]
In 1943 and 1944, aircraft production was moved to concentration camps in order to alleviate labour shortages and to protect production from Allied air raids. The two largest aircraft factories in Germany were located at [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen-Gusen]] and [[Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp|Mittelbau-Dora]] concentration camps.{{sfn|Dobosiewicz|2000| page=194}} Aircraft parts were also manufactured at [[Flossenbürg concentration camp|Flossenbürg]], [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp|Gross-Rosen]], [[Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp|Natzweiler]], [[Herzogenbusch concentration camp|Herzogenbusch]], and [[Neuengamme concentration camp|Neuengamme]].{{sfn|Vajda|Dancey|1998|p=118}}{{sfn|Uziel|2011|pp=180, 185}} In 1944 and 1945, as many as 90,000 concentration prisoners worked in the aviation industry, and were about one tenth of the concentration camp population over the winter of 1944–45.{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|p=45}}{{refn|In January 1944, [[Messerschmitt]] and contractors were using 7564 concentration camp prisoners, [[Heinkel]] and subsidiaries employed a further 9724, and [[Junkers]] used 1571.{{sfn|Vajda|Dancey|1998|p=118}} Heinkel used forced labor at [[Mielec concentration camp|Mielec]]{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=870}} and the Mauthausen subcamps Wien-Floridsdorf,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=958}} Hinterbrühl,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=959}} and Schwechat.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=962}} Junkers had factories at [[Wiener Neudorf]] (also a subcamp of Mauthausen);{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=955}} and operated factories at Buchenwald subcamps Mühlhausen,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=396}} Stempeda{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=999}} and Harzungen.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=984}}|group=N |name=production}} Partly in response to the Luftwaffe's demand for more forced labourers to increase fighter production, the concentration camp more than doubled between mid-1943 (224,000) and mid-1944 (524,000).{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|p=44}} Part of this increase was due to the deportation of Hungarian Jews; the {{lang|de|[[Jägerstab]]}} programme was used to justify the deportations to the Hungarian government. Of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported between May and July 1944, about 320,000 were gassed on arrival at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and the remainder forced to work. Only 50,000 survived.{{sfn|Bauer |1994|pp=155–156}}{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|pp=46, 48}}

Almost 1,000 fuselages of the jet fighter Messerschmitt Me 262 were produced at Gusen, a subcamp of Mauthausen and a brutal labour camp,<ref name="gusen">{{cite web |title=Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg |url=https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/Forced-Labour/Messerschmitt-GmbH-Regensburg |website=www.mauthausen-memorial.org |access-date=28 July 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728071224/https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/Forced-Labour/Messerschmitt-GmbH-Regensburg |archive-date=28 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Bartrop|Dickerman|2017|p=427}}<!--262 production at Leonburg,{{Sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1042}} Neckarelz I and II, p. 1046, Kaltenkirchen, 1152; Luftwaffe munitions at Lubberstedt 1157--> where the average life expectancy was six months.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gusen |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006144 |website=www.ushmm.org |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=28 July 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708075648/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006144 |archive-date=8 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1944, one-third of production at the crucial [[Regensburg]] plant that produced the Bf 109, the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter arm, originated in Gusen and Flossenbürg alone.<ref name="gusen"/> [[Synthetic oil]] was produced from [[shale oil]] deposits by prisoners of Mittlebau-Dora as part of [[Operation Desert]] directed by [[Edmund Geilenberg]] in order to make up for the decrease in oil production due to Allied bombing. For oil production, three subcamps were constructed and 15,000 prisoners forced to work in the plant. More than 3,500 people died.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=969, 1012–3}} [[Vaivara concentration camp]] in [[Estonia]] was also established for shale oil extraction;{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1292}} about 20,000 prisoners worked there and more than 1,500 died at Vaivara.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1294}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1991-061-17, Niedersachswerfen, Produktion von V1 - V2.jpg|thumb |Manufacturing of [[V-1 flying bomb|V-1]] cruise missiles and [[V-2 rocket|V-2]] rockets in the [[Mittelwerk]] tunnels resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 people.]]

Luftwaffe airfields were frequently maintained using forced labour. Thousands of inmates from five subcamps of [[Stutthof concentration camp|Stutthof]] worked on the airfields.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=1426, 1479}} Airfields and bases near several other concentration camps{{refn|Buchenwald,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=352}} Dachau,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=527}} Flossenbürg,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=652}} Gross-Rosen,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=702}} Herzogenbusch,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=820}} and [[Hinzert]]{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=834}}|group=N}} and [[Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany|ghettos]]{{refn|Krewo ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1078}} Baranowicze ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1166}} and Stołpce ghetto{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1288}}|group=N}} were constructed or maintained by prisoners. On the orders of the Luftwaffe, prisoners from Buchenwald and Herzogenbusch were forced to defuse bombs that had fallen around Düsseldorf{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=336}} and Leeuwarden respectively.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=820–1}}

Thousands of Luftwaffe personnel [[Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps|worked as concentration camp guards]]. Auschwitz included a munitions factory guarded by Luftwaffe soldiers;{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=222}} 2,700 Luftwaffe personnel worked as guards at Buchenwald.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=291}} Dozens of camps and subcamps were staffed primarily by Luftwaffe soldiers.{{refn|See [[Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps]] for a full list.|group=N|name=camps}} According to the ''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos]]'', it was typical for camps devoted to armaments production to be run by the branch of the {{lang|de|Wehrmacht}} that used the products.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=955}} In 1944, many Luftwaffe soldiers were transferred to concentration camps to alleviate personnel shortages.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=1016–7}}

===Massacres===
{{further|Bandenbekämpfung|List of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions that committed war crimes in Italy}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-166-0527-04, Kreta, Kondomari, Erschießung von Zivilisten.jpg|thumb|Civilians murdered by [[Fallschirmjäger|Luftwaffe paratroopers]] in [[Kondomari]], Crete]]
[[Fallschirmjäger|Luftwaffe paratroopers]] committed many war crimes in Crete following the Battle of Crete, including the [[Alikianos executions]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Westermann |first1=Edward B. |title=Hitler's Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest |date=2016 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=9780806157122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMwjDQAAQBAJ&q=Alikianos+executions&pg=PT182 |language=en}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> the [[Massacre of Kondomari]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Neal |first1=Stephan D. Yada-Mc |title=Places of Shame – German and Bulgarian war crimes in Greece 1941–1945 |date=2018 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=9783744850735 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_T1RDwAAQBAJ&q=Massacre+of+Kondomari&pg=PA36 |language=en}}</ref> and the [[Razing of Kandanos]].<ref>{{cite news |title=On This Day June 3, 1941: What Happened to the Cretan Village of Kandanos When its Citizens Defended Their Homes from Invading Nazis? – The Pappas Post |url=http://www.pappaspost.com/what-happened-to-the-cretan-village-of-kandanos-when-its-citizens-defended-their-homes-from-invading-nazis/ |access-date=22 August 2018 |work=The Pappas Post |date=3 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822081125/http://www.pappaspost.com/what-happened-to-the-cretan-village-of-kandanos-when-its-citizens-defended-their-homes-from-invading-nazis/ |archive-date=22 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Several Luftwaffe divisions, including the [[1st Parachute Division (Germany)|1st Parachute Division]],<ref name= "Onepara">{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=515&lang=en |title=1. Fallschirmjäger-Division |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153446/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=515&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[2nd Parachute Division (Germany)|2nd Parachute Division]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=620&lang=en |title=3. Panzer Grenadier Division |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921074342/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=620&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[4th Parachute Division (Germany)|4th Parachute Division]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=516&lang=en |title=4. Fallschirm-Jäger-Division |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921074538/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=516&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[19th Luftwaffe Field Division]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=1094&lang=en |title=III. Gruppe/Luftwaffe-Artillerie-Regiment 19 |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153340/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=1094&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[20th Luftwaffe Field Division]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=1087&lang=en |title=20. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153438/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=1087&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the 1st {{lang|de|Fallschirm-Panzer}} Division,<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=190&lang=en |title=Fallschirm-Panzer-Division "Hermann Goring" |work=Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia |access-date=20 September 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921153435/http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=190&lang=en |archive-date=21 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> committed war crimes in Italy, murdering hundreds of civilians.

Luftwaffe troops participated in the murder of Jews imprisoned in ghettos in Eastern Europe. For example, they assisted in the murder of 2,680 Jews at the Nemirov ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1550}} participated in a series of massacres at the Opoczno ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=267}} and helped to liquidate the [[History of the Jews in Dęblin and Irena during World War II|Dęblin–Irena Ghetto]] by deporting thousands of Jews to [[Treblinka extermination camp]].{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=638}} Between 1942 and 1944, two Luftwaffe security battalions were stationed in the [[Białowieża Forest]] for {{lang|de|Bandenbekämpfung}}{{refn|Literally "bandit fighting", the word referred to ethnic cleansing and genocide under the guise of anti-partisan warfare.|group=N}} operations.{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=249}} Encouraged by Göring, they murdered thousands of Jews and other civilians.{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=251, 266}} Luftwaffe soldiers frequently [[summary execution|executed]] Polish civilians at random with baseless accusations of being "[[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] agents", in order to keep the population in line,{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=256}} or as reprisal for partisan activities.{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=262}} The performance of the troops was measured by the [[body count]] of people murdered.{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=258}} 10,000 Luftwaffe troops were stationed on the Eastern Front for such "anti-partisan" operations.{{sfn|Blood|2010|p=252}}

===Human experimentation===
{{See also|Nazi human experimentation}}
Throughout the war, concentration camp prisoners were forced to serve as [[Human subject research|human subjects]] in testing Luftwaffe equipment. Some of these experiments were carried out by Luftwaffe personnel and others were performed by the SS on the orders of the OKL.

In 1941, experiments with the intent of discovering how to prevent and treat [[hypothermia]] were carried out for the Luftwaffe, which had lost aircrew to immersion hypothermia after [[Water landing|ditchings]].{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=444}} The experiments were conducted at Dachau and Auschwitz. [[Sigmund Rascher]], a Luftwaffe{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=444}} doctor based at Dachau, published the results at the 1942 medical conference entitled "Medical Problems Arising from Sea and Winter".<ref name="NOVA">Tyson, Peter. [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiside.html "Holocaust on Trial: The Experiments."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904154933/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiside.html |date=4 September 2017}} ''NOVA Online''. Retrieved: 23 March 2008.</ref> Of about 400 prisoners forced to participate in cold-water experiments, 80 to 90 were killed.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=444}}

In early 1942, prisoners at Dachau were used by Rascher in experiments to perfect [[ejection seat]]s at high altitudes. A [[pressure vessel|low-pressure chamber]] containing these prisoners was used to simulate conditions at altitudes of up to {{convert|20000|m|ft}}. It was rumored that Rascher performed [[vivisection]]s on the brains of victims who survived the initial experiment.{{sfn|Cockburn|St. Clair|1999|pp=149–150}} Of the 200 subjects, 80 died from the experimentation,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=444}} and the others were executed.<ref name="NOVA"/> Eugen Hagen, head doctor of the Luftwaffe, infected inmates of Natzweiler concentration camp with [[typhus]] in order to test the efficacy of proposed vaccines.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1005}}

===Aerial bombing of non-military targets===
{{See also|Bombing of Wieluń|Operation Retribution (1941)}}
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1005, Belgrad, Zerstörungen.jpg|Bomb-damaged buildings in Belgrade in April 1941|thumb]]
No [[Positive law|positive]] or specific [[Customary international law|customary]] [[international humanitarian law]] with respect to aerial warfare existed prior to or during World War II.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Law of Air Warfare |journal=International Review of the Red Cross |number=323 |pages=347–363 |date=30 June 1998 |url=http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jpcl.htm |author=Javier Guisández Gómez |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425044944/http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jpcl.htm |archive-date=25 April 2013}}</ref> This is also why no Luftwaffe officers were prosecuted at the post-World War II Allied war crime trials for the aerial raids.<ref>{{cite book |title=Terror from the Sky: The Bombing of German Cities in World War II |year=2010 |page=167 |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |isbn=978-1-8454-5844-7}}</ref>

The [[bombing of Wieluń]] was an air raid on the Polish town of [[Wieluń]] by the Luftwaffe on 1 September 1939. The Luftwaffe started bombing Wieluń at 04:40, five minutes before the shelling of [[Westerplatte]], which has traditionally been considered the beginning of World War II in Europe. The air raid on the town was one of the first aerial bombings of the war.<ref name=commentators/> About 1,300 civilians were killed, hundreds were injured, and 90 percent of the town centre was destroyed. The casualty rate was more than twice as high as Guernica.<ref name=commentators>{{cite news |first=Norman |last=Davies |author-link=Norman Davies |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/we-must-not-forget-the-real-causes-of-the-war-1778973.html |title=We must not forget the real causes of the war |newspaper=The Independent |date=29 August 2009 |access-date=25 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126094650/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/we-must-not-forget-the-real-causes-of-the-war-1778973.html |archive-date=26 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> A 1989 [[Sender Freies Berlin]] documentary stated that there were no military or industrial targets in the area,<ref name="Słomińska">{{Cite web |first=Sylwia |last=Słomińska |url=http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105195335/http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html |archive-date=5 January 2009 |title=Wieluń, 1 września 1939 r |language=pl}}</ref><ref name="Trenkner">{{Cite web |last=Trenkner |first=Joachim |url=http://www.schron.szczecin.pl/files/artykul-wielun.pdf |title=Wieluń, czwarta czterdzieści |trans-title=Wieluń, four forty am |date=29 August 2008 |language=pl |quote=file, direct download 67.9 KB |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317212148/http://schron.szczecin.pl/files/artykul-wielun.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2012}}</ref> except for a small sugar factory in the outskirts of the town. Furthermore, Trenkner stated that German bombers first destroyed the town's hospital.<ref name="Trenkner"/> Two attempts, in 1978 and 1983, to prosecute individuals for the bombing of the Wieluń hospital were dismissed by West German judges when prosecutors stated that the pilots had been unable to make out the nature of the structure due to fog.<ref name="Trenkner1">{{cite journal |last=Trenkner |first=Joachim |date=1 September 2009 |title=Ziel vernichtet |trans-title=Target destroyed |journal=Die Zeit| volume =2003 |issue=7 |url =http://www.zeit.de/2003/07/A-Wielun?page=all |language=de |access-date=4 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908034445/http://www.zeit.de/2003/07/A-Wielun?page=all |archive-date=8 September 2009 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{sfn|Jolly|2010|p=501}}

[[Operation Retribution (1941)|Operation Retribution]] was the April 1941 German bombing of [[Belgrade]], the capital of [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. The bombing deliberately targeted the killing of civilians as punishment and resulted in 17,000 civilian deaths.{{sfn|Morrow|2014|p=255}} It occurred in the first days of the German-led Axis [[invasion of Yugoslavia]]. The operation commenced on 6 April and concluded on 7 or 8 April, resulting in the paralysis of Yugoslav civilian and military command and control, widespread destruction in the centre of the city and many civilian casualties. Following the Yugoslav capitulation, Luftwaffe engineers conducted a bomb damage assessment in Belgrade. The report stated that {{convert|218.5|MT}} of bombs were dropped, with 10 to 14 percent being incendiaries. It listed all the targets of the bombing, which included: the royal palace, the war ministry, military headquarters, the central post office, the telegraph office, passenger and goods railway stations, power stations, and barracks. It also mentioned that seven aerial mines were dropped and that areas in the centre and northwest of the city had been destroyed, comprising 20 to 25 percent of its total area. Some aspects of the bombing remain unexplained, particularly the use of aerial mines.{{sfn|Boog|Krebs|Vogel|2006|p=366}} In contrast, Pavlowitch states that almost 50 percent of housing in Belgrade was destroyed.{{sfn|Pavlowitch|2007|pp=17–18}} After the invasion, the Germans forced between 3,500 and 4,000 Jews to collect rubble that was caused by the bombing.{{sfn|Ramet|2006|p=131}}

The biggest attacks at civilian targets occurred in the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe attacked the British Isles and primarily hit non military targets. This resulted in over 22,000 civilians being killed and over 30,000 being wounded.

===Trials===
{{main|List of Luftwaffe personnel convicted of war crimes}}
Several prominent Luftwaffe commanders were convicted of war crimes, including General [[Alexander Löhr]]{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|p=756–757}} and Field Marshal Albert Kesselring.{{sfn|von Lingen| 2009|pp=110–118}}